President To Present Medals

WASHINGTON -- President Reagan will present the Presidential Citizens Medal to the crew and designer of Voyager on Monday in Los Angeles, the White House announced on Tuesday.

The Presidential Citizens Medal was established by executive order by President Nixon in 1969 to recognize U.S. citizens for service to their country or fellow citizens.

Reagan plans to spend the weekend in Los Angeles and will fly to Palm Springs to continue a post-Christmas vacation after making the presentation, spokesman Mark Weinberg said.

Weinberg issued a statement in Reagan`s name minutes after the landing that said: ``Jeanna Yeager`s and Richard Rutan`s courage, determination and refusal to give up have thrilled and inspired us all.``

``They are a living example of American pioneerism at its best,`` Reagan said. ``Welcome home.``

Weinberg said the president watched on a television set in his small private study off the Oval Office as the craft touched down at Edwards Air Force Base in California. He called the flight ``magnificent, absolutely magnificent,`` the spokesman reported.

BROTHERS HAD SHARED DREAM

MOJAVE, Calif. -- When pilot Dick Rutan eased himself out of Voyager to the ground Tuesday after completing the first global flight without refueling, his first act was to hug his brother Burt. The brothers had shared their dreams of flight since childhood, and it was Burt who designed the experimental superlight aircraft he believes will transform the aviation industry.

On Monday, standing amid exuberant ground crew members, Burt Rutan predicted that by the year 2000 many planes will incorporate the unusual design and lightweight material the Voyager used to more than double the previous unrefueled flight record.

``It`s going to show that if you break some of the (design) rules . . . and take some risks, that you can get some very significant performance advantages,`` the 43-year-old designer said.

The brothers Rutan worked in a small shop while pursuing their dream in Mojave, much as the Wright brothers did eight decades earlier in Kitty Hawk, N.C. Like the Wright brothers, they found homemade solutions for complex engineering problems, including an oven made out of corrugated steel to bake the material for the plane.

When the brothers were growing up in California and Oregon in the 1950s, Dick, now 48, dreamed of becoming a jet fighter pilot. He fulfilled his ambition when he flew 325 combat missions in Vietnam.

Burt was the builder. In addition to flying, he wanted to turn his ideas into real airplanes. ``This whole business began with model airplanes,`` their mother, Irene, said.

Burt was also the engineering test pilot on a speedy small jet plane called the BD-5, which James Bond flew in the movie Octopussy.

The Voyager, estimated to cost about $2 million, was financed almost entirely by donations. To draw top talent out to his aircraft company in the remote Mojave Desert, Rutan installed racquetball courts and a spa at his Mojave Airport headquarters. But the plane he designed was built for fuel economy, not enjoyment.

When Irene Rutan first saw the Voyager`s cockpit design, she said, ``You didn`t design that with people in mind.``

Burt answered, ``No, Ma, I didn`t. I designed it to go around the world.``

EARHART SISTER SENDS PRAISE

EDWARDS AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. -- Voyager co-pilot Jeana Yeager, back from her flight around the world, received a congratulatory telegram Tuesday from the sister of aviator Amelia Earhart, who disappeared while attempting a global flight 49 years ago.

``My sister, Amelia, would be thrilled that a woman has shared in this record-breaking achievement,`` Muriel Earhart Morrissey said in a telegram sent from her home in Medford, Mass. ``Congratulations to all.``

Amelia Earhart, the first woman to cross the Atlantic Ocean by air and the first woman to fly it alone, vanished near Howland Island in the Pacific Ocean on her attempted around-the-world flight in 1937. No trace of her was ever found.

SOVIETS FOLLOWED PROGRESS

MOSCOW -- Tass, the official Soviet news agency, said Tuesday the Voyager flight would enable experts to draw important conclusions about aircraft materials and construction. Tass alscredited the pilots` skill and stamina for the mission`s success.

Soviet television had broadcast daily reports during its evening news programs on the twin-engine plane`s journey around the world, and the press printed laudatory reports on how pilots Dick Rutan and Jeana Yeager surmounted difficulties in the air.

Accounts in the state-run media were detailed down to Voyager`s landing, informing the Soviet Union`s many aviation buffs of Voyager`s innovative design and praising the flight organizers` goal of setting an aviation record.